SYDNEY -- Australia's long run of outs against trans-Tasman opposition at last came to an end as the Waratahs took down the Highlanders 41-12 on a dramatic Saturday night at Allianz Stadium.
While NSW turned in one of their best showings in recent times, it was the first half sending off of Highlanders winger Tevita Nabura that helped the hosts snap the 40-game run of New Zealand Super Rugby dominance.
Nabura could have few arguments with the decision either. Leaping high to catch a midfield bomb, he extended his right boot directly into chasing Waratahs winger Cameron Clark's chin. While the incident was originally missed on field, the booing from the small but partisan crowd on hand ensured referee Brendon Pickerill turned toward the big screen.
Several incriminating replays later and having consulted Television Match Official George Ayoub, Pickerill had little choice but to remove the red card from his pocket and send Nabura from the field.
Given what had transpired in Christchurch seven days prior, there was a touch of delayed justice in Nabura's removal. What was also clear, though, was that local broadcaster Fox Sports was in no way going to limit the amount of replays the officials had to consult.
"A foot in the head is pretty straight forward," Waratahs captain Michael Hooper said of the incident. "The high ball contest is always a tough one to rule and referee, so the ref was in a tough position. But I thought it was the right decision."
Highlanders coach Aaron Mauger agreed it was "probably" the right decision but he was quick to play down the incident on the match and instead lauded the Waratahs' performance.
"I thought the Waratahs were outstanding, they put us under pressure with 14 men, they created opportunities and they did well to execute them," Mauger said. "We didn't help ourselves at times with some bad decision-making and execution, and it put us under a little bit of pressure and a good team like the Waratahs, who've hit a bit of form, made us pay tonight."
The Waratahs opened the scoring with a Bernard Foley penalty and one of two tries to Fijian winger Taqele Naiyaravoro, who shredded six tackles and made two clean breaks for the match, in a bright start to the game.
The Highlanders looked to have responded through Aaron Smith, only for Ayoub to make his first of several interjections, for a forward pass earlier in the sequence, to cancel the visitors' five-pointer out.
And the Waratahs soon had a two-man advantage as Smith was yellow carded for a deliberate knockdown. It was one of several knockdown incidents reviewed throughout the match, Waratahs skipper Michael Hooper himself lucky to escape a similar fate a short while later.
Before that, though, Naiyaravoro had his double as he beat the best efforts of some determined Highlanders defence, contorting himself behind the tryline to touch down centimetres from the in-goal touchline.
Up 15-0 at the break, the hosts looked to be in control and they extended that lead just three minutes after the resumption as Folau crossed for the first of his two tries when he ran onto a floated Foley cut-out pass.
Just when it looked like the Waratahs would cruise away comfortably, the Highlanders hit back almost immediately from the kick-off. Stringing some nice phases together close to the Waratahs' line, Ben Smith eventually found Elliot Dixon unmarked out wide and the back-rower swallowed a perfectly placed cross-kick.
But any thought of a miracle Highlanders comeback didn't last long as Folau grabbed his second try of the night following a sweeping Waratahs move which he himself had started.
Having fielded a poor Highlanders clearing kick, Folau found Naiyaravoro out wide; the winger brushing off two defenders to put Michael Wells away down the left touchline. Moving the ball from one side of the field to the other, Kurtley Beale, Will Miller and Foley all grabbed a touch before the Wallabies star slid over out wide.
Lalakai Foketi and Curtis Rona each added tries for the hosts to lock up the bonus point inside the final 20 minutes, albeit after Ash Dixon had given the Highlanders a glimmer of hope with a five-pointer from a rolling maul.
The win moves the Waratahs six points clear of the Rebels in the Australian conference ahead of their trip to Hamilton to face the Chiefs next week. The Highlanders, meanwhile, are now 14 points adrift of the Crusaders in third spot on the New Zealand log.
While Nabura's red card will certainly dominate the headlines leading up to and after his judiciary hearing, the Waratahs have at least put to bed the ongoing questions about the trans-Tasman hoodoo.
An irritated Hooper snapped at a question from Fox Sports' commentator and former Wallabies hooker Brendan Cannon post game, asking why he hadn't been asked a more positive question than whether the Waratahs should have scored more points during the period the Highlanders were down to 13 men.
Perhaps it was a hangover of having to front for the best part of two years of New Zealand dominance, but Hooper could at least see the funny side later on.
"It's good to have those questions behind us, I think it was the first question Canno [Cannon] asked me after the game," Hooper said with a smile. "To have that stuff put behind [us] and to speak about a great challenge with the Chiefs down there [is really good.]
"This team's really enjoyable to be around at the moment, you've got guys all putting up their hands, wanting to get on the field; wanting to add. That was a real pleasing part tonight is guys wanting to contribute and wanting to take that moment into their own hands and doing something with it."